They said it was due to poor performance, but to make a long story short, the head of her department was fired not long ago and replaced by one of her equals, who has had it out for her ever since, nitpicking her at every corner about stupid shit. E.G. she got written up for "looking uninterested" during a meeting and being on her laptop. She was taking notes, which is... was one of her tasks during meetings. When her cohort got promoted, she immediately started in with questions about whether my wife was going to have problems with her "authority" etc. Worked there 9 years, this chick gets promoted bam, fired in three months.